Cleveland Browns: 4 things we learned from training camp

Aug 13, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine in a preseason NFL football game against the Washington Redskins at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

When the last person turned off the lights and left team headquarters in Berea Monday night it signaled the end of training camp for the Browns.

It’s not the end of the work, of course, as the team still has:

• two preseason friendlies – Saturday against Tampa Bay and Sept. 3 against Chicago;
• roster cut downs – the team must get down to a maximum of 75 players on Sept. 1 and 53 players by 6 p.m. on Sept. 5; and,
• several practices to get through before they line up on Sept. 13 against the New York Jets in the opening game of the 2015 NFL season.

Prior to the first practice of training camp, head coach Mike Pettine shared what he was looking for out of his team.

“Football’s about making plays. It is. You want guys to be productive. Potential only gets you so far, height, weight. We’re playing the game. We’re not out there running races or lifting weights. We’re playing football,” Pettine told the team’s website. “Who’s doing their job? Who can make plays but also who can make plays within the structure of the offense or defense, guys that aren’t coming out of structure and going outlaw, as we call it, to try to stand out.

“We tell our guys, do your job and good things will happen. If they go out every day of a mindset of ‘I’m going to fill my gradesheet with plusses,’ there’s that trust factor with coaches that ‘hey, here’s a guy that all he does is go out and does his job.’ Those are the guys that, you have your superstars that are going to make plays for you, but that next tier of guys you want to be solid, dependable, trustworthy and go out and do their job every time. If everybody goes out and gets a plus, if we’ve structured the offense or defense right as coaches, we’ll have a positive result.”

With that in mind, here are four things we’ve learned so far about the Browns.

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